Guy Boucher is one of the best young coaches in the game today. He has a charisma and sincerity, he is humble and players listen to him!!! Lecavalier said: “…. the way he communicates with players, and how positive he is behind the bench, players like to follow his instructions. When a player makes a mistake, he is not there screaming at him. He turns it around to be positive. Guys like that and respond to it.”
And there is no need to introduce Steve Yzerman, Tampa Bay GM. They have knowledge there, they know how to motivate people.
Humility is important to success, said Mr. Boucher, who has a degree in sport psychology

During the game Ducks analyst Brian Hayward echoed cz’s pregame post making the point about how Boucher is always talking about what fine people his players are.

Hazy took it to the next level and compared Boucher’s approach to Randy Carlyle. It was not favorable to Carlyle.

Today’s player is better educated in the game and better trained to compete.

What Randy Carlyle doesn’t seem to know is that you can bag skate today’s player when they deserve it. Fact is today’s player, just like children of every generation crave firm but fair discipline. Players and children don’t want a buddy. They want a leader.

What Carlyle just doesn’t get is that you can’t disrespect today’s player as people. Guy Boucher knows it. Maybe it’s something successive older generations always tend to forget.

The lack of respect Randy Carlyle routinely shows his players, especially the young is well chronicled. I don’t think he means harm by it. I just think he doesn’t know any better.

I had a coach who called me, “Effen pylon.” I understood why he did it. It was just his way motivating me. I took being slashed on the backside and tripped while doing skating drills. We all did. We wanted to play.

I never resented it until he called me “pylon” in front of my girlfriend and my parents. It was like in his mind dropping the F-bomb was showing respect.

That was the day I hated his guts and hate him to this day. Some years after I passed through his age group, I learned he was banned when money went missing. As far as I was concerned him stealing kids hockey money was right in character.

Carlyle’s verbal abuse of players, privately and publicly isn’t legendary. It isn’t unique to Randy Carlyle. It’s just old school.

Old school worked when a young man’s choice was play hockey before going to work in an auto plant, a mine, drive a truck or maybe be a cop or a fireman. Very good hockey players got sales jobs in the off-season.

The choices for hockey players are much different today. Teemu Selanne was an elementary school teacher in Finland when he signed his first pro contract. If not hockey, George Parros would be working in the financial services industry.

It’s not just the education and training that makes today’s player different. It’s the cultural experience. Walk into a hockey dressing room today and you will hear conversations in 3-5 or more languages. Imagine the intellectual challenge of communicating and working in a group so diverse people don’t speak the same language.

The old school guys say hockey has its own language. To some extent it’s true. In some ways the universal language of hockey makes it easier. In other ways, it makes even more difficult. Simply because, as you progress in hockey, as with everything, more is required of you.

The culture and demands of today’s game produces smarter hockey players.

Have you ever noticed that Sean Avery’s antics and trash talk tends to work on Canadian players but not so well with the better educated Americans and culturally mature Europeans? There’s a reason.

At risk of appearing an intellectual snob about it, it’s the same reason the old school methods of guys like Randy Carlyle don’t work so well with today’s player.

Old school sees success and failure as validation or lack thereof. It’s the Lombardi culture wherein winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. While the quote is accurate, the caricature is very unfair to Coach Lombardi but it lives.

Old school fails to appreciate that what motivates today’s player is respect. If you don’t give it, you don’t get it. Guy Boucher respects his players as men. Randy Carlyle doesn’t because he doesn’t know how.

In Randy Carlyle’s old school universe, respect isn’t a right. It’s a grant. When you’re tough enough. And that is why and how Randy Carlyle lost a hockey team.

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RC does seem to have an imaginary bar that each player has to either work up to, or just be so good they draft high or are universally revered, then they get a pass..I am sure he resents it at times, and doesn’t get their lack of respect. I am not saying they disrespect him, (I have no idea since I am not there) but he may feel that way, and he also doesn’t seem to think just because you were an up and comer that you have earned a try on a top line, (see Ryan Carter, Ebbet, Drew Miller, Christiansen, etc..) so if you don’t produce immediately, you’re a scratch or sent down….it stifles progress.

Having said all that, the injuries have required him to dial up some kids with talent, it will be interesting to see what happens when the injuries are healed…..

Hey buick22, I’m not there either. I do get tossed a nut now and then. They call it second hand hearsay in a courtroom A judge, in civil cases will properly admit such testimony when the credibility of the witness is not at issue and when the hearsay is supportive to or supported by other evidence.

The journalist standard is confirm with two sources. In the absence of a second source I use the judicial standard, as explained here, http://bit.ly/cH2Hj5

The question did come up on this blog when I broke the Lupul story that at least one medical opinion was at the time, that Loops would never play again at an NHL level. Joffrey Lupul tweeted a denial. I reported loops denial and still stand by my source.

My biggest fear is that I’ll be lumped with the gossip girls. So I do my best to maintain some acceptable standards and have no problem sharing those standards. I think I owe you that.

Fair enough, I go by the criminal court evidence rules, hearsay is inadmissible except for a few exceptions…..I also know that perception is reality, and your assessment is also my impression at times….after Friday it will be re-assessment time for RC and how he is dealing this year….seems like same ol, but he never would have rolled the lines he did the last few seasons as he did last night…progress? or just situational? I’ll let you decide, if someone is tossing a nugget to me, they usually aim for my head…

Jeez Bud, I’ve been asking that question in posts and blogs for a month now.

Carlye is definitely acting far more quickly this season than in previous years. cz has noted the changes. Less puck pursuit and more positional or zone play, especially net presence at both ends of the rink.

Is the seemingly new Randy Carlyle trying everything to get off to a better start or are these the desperate acts of a coach who’s job is on the line? Murray says Carlyle is not at risk of losing his job.

I do believe Bob Murray would have to do some talkin’ upstairs before he traded one of Getzlaf, Ryan or Selanne.

As you know Buick22, there is a respect among the educated that the less educated refer to as snobbery. Brian Burke, Harvard Law grad enjoyed that respect within the Samueli’s advanced degree circle.

I know you have, but obviously the Ducks aren’t doing anything about it. RC does seem to be turning a new leaf, I am guessing they may have voiced their mindset as being less fond of keeping him than they project in the media….or he is just tired of losing games in the early going yet again….maybe he is paying attention to the fans, and catering to our wishes, seeing the folly of his old tired system, and how he needed to adapt. Yes he is renaissance Randy, our man of the hour, cutting, edge, sword in hand leading the charge to dizzying lineup changes across the land, marking his territory just this side of the Santa Ana River…oh yeah, that is from some other fairy tale….anyway, I am with ya, I just hope the team is with RC, as since he ain’t leaving, maybe he CAN run things different…